Venezuela Thread

[The Wiseman]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/03/02/chavez.colombia/index.html?section=cnn_latest

(CNN) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday ordered his military to move 10 battalions to the country's border with Colombia and ordered the closure of the Venezuelan Embassy in Bogota.

He made the comments on his weekly Sunday talk show.

The move was in an apparent reaction to Colombia's joint operation Saturday in Ecuador that resulted in the death of the second-in-command of the FARC, a Spanish acronym for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

Chavez condemned the operation Saturday, saying that the Colombian government had violated Ecuador's sovereignty. He said that if the operation had been conducted in Venezuela, he would have declared war against Colombia.

"Colombia's government recognizes -- in a happy and irresponsible attitude --that it has violated the sovereignty of a neighbor country. And that's worrisome," he said.

In comments directed at Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, Chavez said: "Think well. Don't think about doing that over here, don't think it. Because it would very serious, a military raid in Venezuelan territory would be 'causus belli' [cause of war]. There is not any excuse."

Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos denied that Colombia violated Ecuadoran airspace in the joint operation that killed Luis Edgar Devia Silva, known as "Raul Reyes."

The operation, which involved Colombian air forces attacking a FARC camp from the Colombian side, also involved Colombia's national police, Santos said. Reyes was among 17 killed.

Santos also said Uribe had spoken to Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa to inform him of the situation.

The Marxist group has been trying for some 40 years to overthrow the Colombian government.

On Wednesday, the group released four former Colombian lawmakers who were among the estimated 750 hostages the group has held in the jungles of Colombia.

In the past two months, FARC has released six hostages.

Reyes, who was a member of the seven-man FARC leadership council, known as the general secretariat, had played a key mediation role in the release of those hostages.

Chavez, whose left-wing political philosophy comes closer than that of Colombia's rightist leaders to the doctrines of the FARC, brokered the two deals to release hostages.

[Xing]

Correa says Colombia also killed civilians.  I wish the media actually investigated that further. 

[Godfather of Soul]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/V/VENEZUELA_COLOMBIA?SITE=CAVIC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Colombia: Chavez funding FARC rebels

By TOBY MUSE
Associated Press Writer

 BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Venezuela and Ecuador sought Monday to make Colombia pay a high diplomatic and economic price for killing a leftist rebel leader in the Ecuadorean jungle - expelling its diplomats, ordering troops to the border and largely halting trade at key points along the frontier.

But Colombia quickly struck back, revealing what it said were incriminating documents seized from the rebel camp that suggest its neighbors have been secretly supporting the rebels' deadly insurgency.

And in a tit-for-tat move, Venezuela later displayed the laptop of a slain drug trafficker, which it said contained information implicating Colombia's national police chief in the cocaine trade.

Colombia's national police chief said the documents show Venezuela recently paid $300 million to the rebels, among other financial and political ties that date back years, and that high-level meetings have been held between rebels and Ecuadorean officials.

And this shocker: Colombia says some documents suggest the rebels have bought and sold uranium.

"When they mention negotiations for 50 kilos of uranium this means that the FARC are taking big steps in the world of terrorism to become a global aggressor. We're not talking of domestic guerrilla but transnational terrorism," Gen. Oscar Naranjo said at an explosive news conference.

Naranjo didn't give any details on when, where or from whom the uranium was allegedly bought. He provided no proof of the payment and wouldn't release copies of the documents, which he said are "tremendously revelatory" and are being examined with the help of U.S. experts.

Both Venezuela and Ecuador dismissed his allegations as lies. They expelled Colombia's top diplomats and recalled their own. Ecuador's President Rafael Correa planned to visit five Latin American countries starting Tuesday to defend his decision to break off diplomatic relations, accusing Colombia of being an enemy of peace and lying about the nature of the raid.

Colombia said military commandos, tracking Reyes through an informant, were fired upon from Ecuadorean territory. But Correa said Colombia deliberately carried out the strike beyond its borders, and that the rebels were "bombed and massacred as they slept, using precision technology."

Both countries also began reinforcing their borders, mobilizing troops and tanks as Chavez warned that another Colombian attack could spark a wider South American war.

Venezuelan National Guard troops and customs authorities suspended new imports and exports at the busiest border crossings. One Colombian police commander, Col. Ivan Florez, told the AP that all vehicles with Colombian license plates were being turned away from a key border crossing.

Maintaining trade with Colombia, essential to Venezuela's economy, is one of many factors weighing against outright war. But the bellicose rhetoric has worried Latin American leaders. The presidents of Chile, Mexico and Brazil offered to mediate, and an emergency session of the Organization of American States was scheduled for Tuesday in Washington.

U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the United States supports Colombia's right to defend itself against the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and called for dialogue.

Colombian officials have long complained that rebels take refuge in Ecuador and Venezuela. But Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said Monday that his government isn't moving any troops and "we have the situation under control."

The rebels, who have been fighting for more than four decades for a more equitable distribution of wealth in Colombia, fund themselves largely through the cocaine trade, while holding hundreds of kidnapped hostages for ransom and political ends. The drug trafficking and kidnappings haven't helped their reputation, which is why both Correa and Chavez have denied supporting them.

The documents seized by U.S.-backed Colombian commandos suggest both leaders have been openly lying to the world, Naranjo said.

Killed in the bombing were Reyes, the FARC's top spokesman, and 20 other guerrillas. Ecuador recovered 19 bodies and three wounded female rebels, including a Mexican philosophy student. By then, Colombian soldiers had already carried out the cadavers of Reyes and another rebel, along with three laptops containing the sensitive documents.

Indignant, Chavez said "they wanted to show off the trophy" and called it "cowardly murder, all of it coldly calculated."

"This could be the start of a war in South America," Chavez said.

But Naranjo said laptops show Venezuela's growing responsibility for the conflict.

The $300 million payment was mentioned in a Feb. 14 message in Reyes laptop, along with documents suggesting rebels discussed a possible arms transfer from Venezuela, and revealing close ties between Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda, the top FARC leader, and Venezuela's government.

He quoted one message from Marulanda to Chavez saying "We will always be ready, in the case of gringo aggression, to provide our modest knowledge in defense of the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela."

"This implies more than cozying up, but an armed alliance between the FARC and the Venezuelan government," Naranjo said.

Naranjo said other documents show deepening ties between the rebels and Correa. Ecuador acknowledged that its internal security minister, Gustavo Larrea, met with a FARC emissary but said the intent was strictly humanitarian - to seek the release of hostages held by the rebel group.

Still another document in Reyes' laptop suggests the rebels sent Chavez money when he was jailed in 1992 for leading a coup attempt, Naranjo said. At the time, he was plotting the comeback that eventually led to his election as president in 1998.

"A note recovered from Raul Reyes speaks of how grateful Chavez was for the 100 million pesos (about $150,000 at the time) ... delivered to Chavez when he was in prison," Naranjo said, without giving any more details.

Venezuelan late Monday countered by displaying its own seized laptop in Caracas, saying it holds incriminating information about Naranjo.

Venezuelan Justice Minister Ramon Rodriguez Chacin said this laptop, belonging to Colombian drug lord Wilber Varela, who was found slain in Venezuela in January, held "important information and notes from the drug traffickers which involve General Oscar Naranjo in drug trafficking."

Rodriguez, who is Chavez's top law enforcement official, said both Naranjo and his brother, who is imprisoned in Germany on drug charges, have links to traffickers. He also alleged that the documents reveal bribes were paid to Colombia's defense minister to occupy posts, and that the Colombians had Varela killed.

Rodriguez also has been a key go-between in contacts with the FARC. He noted that Colombia's attack on the rebels came just after the FARC released four hostages to him, and said the "intent of the fascist Colombian government is to hamper the handover of hostages, because that is the path of peace."
__________________________________________________________

Man, this is really sounding more and more like open warfare is on the horizon.    Chavez himself admits this.  Columbia may very well serve as a proxy for US armed conflict with Venezuela in an attempt to start bleeding Venezuela and weakening its longterm influence. 

[betoAYAK]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/V/VENEZUELA_COLOMBIA?SITE=CAVIC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Colombia: Chavez funding FARC rebels

By TOBY MUSE
Associated Press Writer

 BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Venezuela and Ecuador sought Monday to make Colombia pay a high diplomatic and economic price for killing a leftist rebel leader in the Ecuadorean jungle - expelling its diplomats, ordering troops to the border and largely halting trade at key points along the frontier.

But Colombia quickly struck back, revealing what it said were incriminating documents seized from the rebel camp that suggest its neighbors have been secretly supporting the rebels' deadly insurgency.

And in a tit-for-tat move, Venezuela later displayed the laptop of a slain drug trafficker, which it said contained information implicating Colombia's national police chief in the cocaine trade.

Colombia's national police chief said the documents show Venezuela recently paid $300 million to the rebels, among other financial and political ties that date back years, and that high-level meetings have been held between rebels and Ecuadorean officials.

And this shocker: Colombia says some documents suggest the rebels have bought and sold uranium.

"When they mention negotiations for 50 kilos of uranium this means that the FARC are taking big steps in the world of terrorism to become a global aggressor. We're not talking of domestic guerrilla but transnational terrorism," Gen. Oscar Naranjo said at an explosive news conference.

Naranjo didn't give any details on when, where or from whom the uranium was allegedly bought. He provided no proof of the payment and wouldn't release copies of the documents, which he said are "tremendously revelatory" and are being examined with the help of U.S. experts.

Both Venezuela and Ecuador dismissed his allegations as lies. They expelled Colombia's top diplomats and recalled their own. Ecuador's President Rafael Correa planned to visit five Latin American countries starting Tuesday to defend his decision to break off diplomatic relations, accusing Colombia of being an enemy of peace and lying about the nature of the raid.

Colombia said military commandos, tracking Reyes through an informant, were fired upon from Ecuadorean territory. But Correa said Colombia deliberately carried out the strike beyond its borders, and that the rebels were "bombed and massacred as they slept, using precision technology."

Both countries also began reinforcing their borders, mobilizing troops and tanks as Chavez warned that another Colombian attack could spark a wider South American war.

Venezuelan National Guard troops and customs authorities suspended new imports and exports at the busiest border crossings. One Colombian police commander, Col. Ivan Florez, told the AP that all vehicles with Colombian license plates were being turned away from a key border crossing.

Maintaining trade with Colombia, essential to Venezuela's economy, is one of many factors weighing against outright war. But the bellicose rhetoric has worried Latin American leaders. The presidents of Chile, Mexico and Brazil offered to mediate, and an emergency session of the Organization of American States was scheduled for Tuesday in Washington.

U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the United States supports Colombia's right to defend itself against the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and called for dialogue.

Colombian officials have long complained that rebels take refuge in Ecuador and Venezuela. But Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said Monday that his government isn't moving any troops and "we have the situation under control."

The rebels, who have been fighting for more than four decades for a more equitable distribution of wealth in Colombia, fund themselves largely through the cocaine trade, while holding hundreds of kidnapped hostages for ransom and political ends. The drug trafficking and kidnappings haven't helped their reputation, which is why both Correa and Chavez have denied supporting them.

The documents seized by U.S.-backed Colombian commandos suggest both leaders have been openly lying to the world, Naranjo said.

Killed in the bombing were Reyes, the FARC's top spokesman, and 20 other guerrillas. Ecuador recovered 19 bodies and three wounded female rebels, including a Mexican philosophy student. By then, Colombian soldiers had already carried out the cadavers of Reyes and another rebel, along with three laptops containing the sensitive documents.

Indignant, Chavez said "they wanted to show off the trophy" and called it "cowardly murder, all of it coldly calculated."

"This could be the start of a war in South America," Chavez said.

But Naranjo said laptops show Venezuela's growing responsibility for the conflict.

The $300 million payment was mentioned in a Feb. 14 message in Reyes laptop, along with documents suggesting rebels discussed a possible arms transfer from Venezuela, and revealing close ties between Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda, the top FARC leader, and Venezuela's government.

He quoted one message from Marulanda to Chavez saying "We will always be ready, in the case of gringo aggression, to provide our modest knowledge in defense of the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela."

"This implies more than cozying up, but an armed alliance between the FARC and the Venezuelan government," Naranjo said.

Naranjo said other documents show deepening ties between the rebels and Correa. Ecuador acknowledged that its internal security minister, Gustavo Larrea, met with a FARC emissary but said the intent was strictly humanitarian - to seek the release of hostages held by the rebel group.

Still another document in Reyes' laptop suggests the rebels sent Chavez money when he was jailed in 1992 for leading a coup attempt, Naranjo said. At the time, he was plotting the comeback that eventually led to his election as president in 1998.

"A note recovered from Raul Reyes speaks of how grateful Chavez was for the 100 million pesos (about $150,000 at the time) ... delivered to Chavez when he was in prison," Naranjo said, without giving any more details.

Venezuelan late Monday countered by displaying its own seized laptop in Caracas, saying it holds incriminating information about Naranjo.

Venezuelan Justice Minister Ramon Rodriguez Chacin said this laptop, belonging to Colombian drug lord Wilber Varela, who was found slain in Venezuela in January, held "important information and notes from the drug traffickers which involve General Oscar Naranjo in drug trafficking."

Rodriguez, who is Chavez's top law enforcement official, said both Naranjo and his brother, who is imprisoned in Germany on drug charges, have links to traffickers. He also alleged that the documents reveal bribes were paid to Colombia's defense minister to occupy posts, and that the Colombians had Varela killed.

Rodriguez also has been a key go-between in contacts with the FARC. He noted that Colombia's attack on the rebels came just after the FARC released four hostages to him, and said the "intent of the fascist Colombian government is to hamper the handover of hostages, because that is the path of peace."
__________________________________________________________

Man, this is really sounding more and more like open warfare is on the horizon.    Chavez himself admits this.  Columbia may very well serve as a proxy for US armed conflict with Venezuela in an attempt to start bleeding Venezuela and weakening its longterm influence. 

man, none of this is new, relax.

its just the continuation of ongoing 'sibling rivalry' that goes back 50 years or more.  colOmbia has always been sore for losing the oil-rich gulf of venezuela and lake maracaibo to venezuela.  they should be more pissed about the US backed secession of panama, but we all know who pulls the strings of the puppet government in colOmbia...

[Godfather of Soul]

The new part, Beto, is that Colombia just committed a serious act of war against Ecuador and Venezuela.

[The Wiseman]

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3222

Chavez: “Colombia is the Israel of Latin America.”

Monday, March 03, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez labeled Colombia the "Israel of Latin America" on his Sunday talk show Aló Presidente yesterday. Responding to events on Saturday in which the Colombian military made an illegal attack across the border in Ecuadorian territory, the Venezuelan leader called Colombia a "terrorist state," and gave orders to mobilize troops on the Venezuelan-Colombian border.

"The Colombian government has turned into the Israel of Latin America," said Chavez during his show on Sunday.

"Colombia is a terrorist state that is subject to the great terrorist, the government of the United States and their apparatus," he explained.

The Venezuelan president spoke in response to an attack and killing on the part of the Colombian military of several FARC guerrillas, including top leader Raul Reyes, on Saturday morning. Chavez called the killing a "cowardly murder" and condemned the attack for having illegally crossed the Colombian border into Ecuador.

"They bombed from the north and the south of the border," he said. "In other words, they attacked inside Ecuadorian territory."

President Chavez spoke on the telephone with Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa about the attack and the violation of Ecuador's sovereignty. According to Correa, who ordered an investigation of the events, the Colombian military attacked the guerrillas using precision bombs while they were sleeping inside Ecuadorian territory, killing at least 15 men and women, and leaving two female guerrillas injured. The Ecuadorian military said the bodies were still in their pajamas when they found them.

"This was not a battle. It was a cowardly murder," said Chavez. "This was all coldly calculated, and the truth is starting to come out."

Chavez offered any necessary support to his Ecuadorian counterpart and informed his audience that the government of Ecuador would be withdrawing their ambassador from Bogota, and mobilizing troops to the Colombian border. Chavez gave orders during the show for his government to do the same.

"Move ten battalions to the border with Colombian immediately," he said to his defense minister. "We don't want war, but we are not going to allow the North American empire, which is their master, and their puppy-dog President Uribe and the Colombian oligarchy to come divide us, to weaken us. We are not going to allow it."

The Venezuelan president then gave orders to his foreign minister to close the Venezuelan embassy in Bogota and withdraw all the officials that work there, bringing relations between the countries to their lowest point in recent history.

Chavez sharply criticized Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, accusing him of leading a "criminal" government, and warned the Colombian leader that any kind of incursion into Venezuelan territory on the part of the Colombian military would be a cause for war between the two countries.

"This is very serious. If this were to happen in Venezuela it would be a cause for war," said Chavez. "Don't even think about it or I'll launch an air attack."

Chavez compared the actions of the Colombian government to those of Israel in the Middle East who he accused of "invading," "bombing," and "killing" the Palestinian people with the intention of "preventing the union of the Arabic world."

"It is the fist of the empire," he said. "And we're not going to let them plant another Israel here in Latin America."

Washington, who supports the Colombian war against the FARC and provides the Colombian government with more military aid than any other country outside the Middle East, said it was monitoring events in the region.

Crime Prevention

Earlier in the show, President Chavez spoke with police and security forces in Caracas about how to reduce the level of crime in the country. Although he reported that crime has fallen significantly in the last year, Chavez discussed plans to better coordinate forces in the fight against crime, and to focus on prevention.

He also announced a raise in the salaries for public officials like police officers, firefighters, and other security forces.

Chavez ended the show with the approval of more than Bs.F. 123 million (US$ 57 million) to finance public works to improve roads and public spaces around the city of Caracas.

[The Wiseman]

http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/16754

Investigations by the Ecuadorian authorities have shone light on what really happened during the dawn of March 1, when the Colombian armed forces killed between 20 and 22 guerrillas in Ecuadorian territory. Raúl Reyes, number two in the FARC (Spanish acronym of the Colombian guerrilla group, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) command structure was killed in the ambush.

Images, testimonies of resident and of three guerrillas found alive, ballistic reports and Ecuadorian military intelligence demonstrate the heap of lies of the Colombian President, Alvaro Uribe. According to the Colombian version, the Front 48 of the FARC was being pursued on indication that Reyes would be present in a small settlement called Granada, near the Ecuadorian frontier but still in Colombian territory.
 
The Colombian Defence Minister, Juan Manuel Santos, indicated that during the operation the Colombian armed forces had been attacked from a FARC camp situated 1,800 metres from the border in Ecuadorian territory. The Colombian air force then located and attacked the guerrilla camp, taking into account the order not to violate the Ecuadorian air space. The Colombian armed forces later went in to ensure control of the place, leaving the Colombian police in charge till the arrival of the Ecuadorian army.
 
Investigations on the part of the Ecuadorian authorities show there was no combat on the side of the FARC unit which was attacked. With the exception of three of them keeping guard, the 18 killed were asleep in their undergarments; none of the guerrillas had the opportunity of fighting or surrendering. The arms in the camp were piled up. They did not have the chance even to reach for their rifles and grenades; they were massacred while asleep.
 
The testimonies of the residents of the area, as also the large craters on the camp ground, show that four bombs were launched from Colombian aircraft that entered Ecuadorian territory. According to the investigations of the military intelligence, these were launched from the south of the camp, which is to say that the aircraft had intruded more than 10 km into Ecuadorian territory when the attack began.
 
After the bombing from these aircraft, several ‘Supertuscan’ helicopters of the Colombian air force came in and from these the attack on the FARC camp in Ecuadorian territory continued. The helicopters landed special commandos who finished off the injured guerrillas. As the bullet wounds in the bodies of the majority of the guerrillas show, many of them were piled up in a part of the camp and killed from behind. Even the photographs taken by the Colombian government of Raul Reyes’ body show he had a shot on the left side of his face.
 
Information coming from Ecuadorian military intelligence indicates that the country’s air space was not only violated on the dawn of March 1 but also that on the dawn of March 2 there was another incursion of the helicopters with night vision equipment to pick up members of the armed forces and Colombian police still in Ecuadorian territory. The position of the trees brought down by the bombardment, the multiple bullet holes on them, as also the position of the bodies, demonstrate that while the FARC was guarding the camp on the northern side facing the Colombian frontier, the air incursion happened from the south, which indicates that the Colombian air force intruded without permission or notification, contravening all international norms about Ecuadorian air space.
 
The testimonies of the area’s residents indicate the attack lasted from approximately after midnight till six in the morning of March 1. The precision of the attack also shows the use of important military technology which puts on the table the possibility of the participation of the United States in the massacres, at least in spotting the guerrilla unit.
 
The testimonies of the people speak of the possibility that the Colombian helicopters had carried four, and not the two bodies of Raul Reyes and Julian Conrado, as indicated by the authorities of the attacking country. For its part, the Ecuadorian military does not rule out the possibility of some more bodies being found in the lush tropical zone where the killings took place.
 
The finalisation of the 10-year agreement between Ecuador and the United States for use of the Manta air base, which expires at the end of this year, and which President Rafael Correa is minded not to renew, is also an element in the diplomatic crisis. The Manta air base is a fundamental tool in the structure and strategy of Plan Colombia and though the USA has not made concrete declarations about quitting the base, it is evident that it forms part of its worrying agenda regarding the ‘Citizens’ Revolution’ in Ecuador.
 
This report was originally published in Vamos a Cambiar El Mundo and reproduced in Rebelíon.
 
Abridged translation by Supriyo Chatterjee. More reports on Latin America at Meeting Point

[Xing]

OAS supports Ecuador, Venezuela on "path of true peace"
March 5th 2008, by James Suggett Venezuelanalysis. com

 Caracas, March 5, 2008 (venezuelanalysis. com ) - In a special meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS) Tuesday to mediate the conflict sparked by Colombian attacks on encampments of the Revolutionary Forces Armed of Colombia (FARC) in Ecuadorian territory, the OAS formally declared that Colombia`s actions violated Ecuador`s national sovereignty and broke international law, both of which the OAS affirmed are "inviolable. . . directly or indirectly, for whatever reason, even temporarily". 

Ecuador also achieved unanimous backing of its petition for an urgent meeting of foreign relations ministers in the hemisphere, which is scheduled to take place March 17th in Washington, D. C. 

A special committee headed by OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza was created to investigate the attacks and prepare a report for the meeting in Washington.  The proposal for this investigation was originally rejected by Colombian Ambassador to the OAS Camilo Ospina, who considered the theme impertinent and said "the internal affairs of Colombia will be resolved by the Colombian government. "

Claims by the Colombian government to have acted in self-defense have been refuted by survivor testimonies and Ecuadorian government investigations which reveal evidence that it was a pre-planned "massacre" of a sleeping encampment. 

On top of that, reports that U. S.  Admiral Joseph Nimmich met with Colombian military leaders in Bogotá two days before Saturday`s attacks with the stated purpose of "sharing vital information in the fight against terrorism" have fueled suspicions of direct U. S.  involvement in invasion. 

Along the same vein, the international Spanish language news agency EFE and The Guardian report the use of cluster bombs in Saturday`s attacks, weapons which have been denounced by human rights organizations. 

Ospina apologized before the OAS for Colombia`s incursion into Ecuadorian territory, but justified the assault, the death toll of which rose to 23 today after new bodies were found, on the basis that the FARC are a "narcotrafficking mafia". 

Ecuadorian Foreign Relations Minister María Salvador asserted that "a diplomatic apology [by Colombia] will not be sufficient," and demanded concrete measures that guarantee Ecuadorian sovereignty. 

Such guarantees are the aim of Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa`s tour of Latin American nations to promote of international accords to avoid the spread of Colombia`s internal conflict and defend against what he called a "strategy to destabilize the Ecuadorian government in order to put another puppet in Ecuador". 

On the first stop Tuesday Correa won the full backing of Peruvian President Alan García, who pleaded that "our dear friend" Uribe "admit his error," and also urged President Chávez not to get involved in the conflict between Ecuador and Colombia. 

Correa traveled to Brazil Wednesday to meet with Brazilian President Lula da Silva, who announced Tuesday that "it is a concrete fact that Colombia violated the territorial sovereignty of Ecuador," but said he was "convinced that we are going to find a peaceful and tranquil solution to this.  All the presidents in the region are conscious that tranquility is necessary for growth and peace is the most important. "

Following his meeting in Brazil, Correa also met with President Chávez in Caracas Wednesday night, and will subsequently move on to Panama, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic. 

President Chávez publicly reaffirmed Wednesday that "we want peace, and nobody, nothing will divert us from the path to true peace. " In addition, the Venezuelan Defense Minister, General Gustavo Rangel Briceño, reiterated Wednesday that the mobilization of Venezuelan troops to the border is not intended as a threat against the Colombian people, but is a measure of caution in the wake of Colombia`s aggression in Colombia. 

"The Bolivarian Armed Force. . .  respectful of the constitution and the law, favors peace, but is ready to defend the sacred sovereignty of the fatherland," he proclaimed. 

Meanwhile, Colombian President Álvaro Uribe will reconsider his threat to summon Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez to the International Criminal Court on charges of "patronage and financing of genocide," according to former Colombian President Ernesto Samper, who is part of Uribe`s foreign relations committee that advised Uribe to put a halt to the effort. 

Uribe had accused Chávez of delivering $300 million to the FARC, evidenced by records in a computer that was allegedly salvaged from Saturday`s attacks and belonged to the FARC`s second-in-command Raul Reyes, who was killed in the bombardment. 

A diverse group of Colombian political parties, after pledging support for a peaceful solution to the crisis, decried that Uribe`s accusations would only worsen the crisis, and suggested that going to the ICC is "anti-legal" because, when Colombia ratified the ICC in 2002, Uribe earmarked a seven year waiting period during which international laws against war crimes would not apply to Colombia. 

If the Colombian government were to recognize international laws against war crimes, those would be the only viable charges against the FARC, whereas the FARC could not possibly be indicted for genocide, which Article 6 of the ICC legal charter, the Rome Statute, defines as specific "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group," former Colombian Congressperson Jimmy Chamorro speculated. 

On top of that, Uribe`s charges against Chávez do not exist in the Rome Statute, according to José Castillo, a lawyer who previously defended Chávez against fraudulent charges related to the April 2002 coup that were raised by Venezuelan opposition leaders and later dismissed by the court. 

Shortly after Saturday`s attacks, the FARC issued an internet message that "we invite revolutionary firmness, to not lose ground in the effort in favor of humanitarian exchange, to continue our proposal for peace and for the construction of an effective democracy with social justice. "

FARC leaders made another statement Tuesday that Colombia`s murder during the assault Saturday of FARC commander Raúl Reyes, who had been leading negotiations with the French government for the FARC`s release of former French presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, "gravely struck the possibilities of humanitarian exchange and annulled a political outlet in the conflict," and urged that Venezuela, France, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Argentina, and Bolivia push for the demilitarization of two Colombian municipalities which the FARC say must be clear of government forces in order for hostage release to proceed. 

An international Gallup poll on Tuesday found that 80% of Ecuadorians support Correa`s handling of the conflict so far.  A poll of 1,068 Colombians in five cities and the border region with Ecuador by the Colombia-based National Consultation Center revealed that 83% approved the Colombian military`s actions Saturday. 

Amidst speculations by Venezuelan private industry that the rupture of commercial relations with Colombia could cause $500 million in losses per month, the Venezuelan Food Minister Félix Osorio assured Wednesday that within 30 days the gap in imports will be covered.  Meanwhile, Argentine President Cristina de Kirchner traveled to Caracas Wednesday to sign food exportation accords with President Chávez, after expressing support for Ecuadorian territorial sovereignty. 

Also, the Israeli Foreign Relations Minister responded to declarations by President Chávez on Sunday that the U. S.  "empire" wishes to make the "mafia" government of Colombia into the "Israel of Latin America". 

"No country should feel offended for being compared with Israel," he asserted, because "any comparision with Israel is good. "

[marcos]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080309/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/venezuela_colombia


Venezuela reopening embassy in Colombia By IAN JAMES, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 16 minutes ago
 

Venezuela said Sunday that it was restoring full diplomatic ties with Colombia that were broken off in a regional crisis sparked by a cross-border Colombian attack on a leftist rebel camp in Ecuador.

The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said it was reopening its embassy in Colombia and will allow back Colombian diplomats it expelled last week. It cited an easing of tensions at a summit in the Dominican Republic on Friday, where President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa shook hands with Colombia's U.S.-backed leader, Alvaro Uribe, after a tense debate.

Venezuela described the reconciliation as a "victory for peace and sovereignty."

Chavez ordered the Venezuelan embassy in Bogota closed and sent troops to the border with Colombia after Uribe's government carried out a March 1 strike in Ecuador that killed 25 people including Raul Reyes, a spokesman and top leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Venezuela also said it was expelling Colombia's ambassador and all diplomatic personnel.

The crisis deescalated at the summit, where Colombia pledged not to follow through on its threat to seek genocide charges against Chavez at an international court for allegedly supporting the FARC, which finances its insurgency through kidnapping and the cocaine trade.

Uribe apologized for the raid and pledged not to violate another nation's sovereignty again. A joint statement issued at the summit also committed all the countries to fighting threats to national stability from "irregular or criminal groups," a reference to Colombia's accusation that its two neighbors have ties to rebels.

But the agreement didn't eliminate the causes of the crisis: the Colombian insurgency that has spilled across its borders, and a stalemate over international efforts to facilitate a swap of rebel-held hostages for imprisoned guerrillas.

Correa said Saturday on his weekly radio show that it will be "difficult to recover trust" in Uribe's government. Restoring diplomatic ties "will take a little time," he said.

[Xing]

Latin American crisis triggered by an assassination “Made in the USA”
By Bill Van Auken
7 March 2008
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Nearly a week after Colombia’s cross-border raid against an encampment of the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) guerrilla movement in neighboring Ecuador, Latin America continues to confront its worst regional diplomatic and military crisis in decades. The US government and mass media have weighed in with unsolicited judgments and advice, attributing the tense standoff between Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela to the threat of terrorism to Colombia, the complicity in terrorism on the part of Venezuela and overheated animosities between the respective heads of state of these three countries.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey declared that “it’s important to recognize that the events that took place were, in fact, a response to the presence of terrorists.” Similarly, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino affirmed that Colombia “was defending itself against terrorism.”

This official reaction extends to Colombia—Washington’s principal client state in South America and the recipient of some $600 million annually in American military aid—the mantle of the Bush Doctrine, which holds that in the “global war on terrorism” such niceties as respect for sovereign borders and international law no longer apply.

The Washington Post went a step further, calling the March 1 raid a “remarkable success” and accusing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa of “backing an armed movement with an established record of terrorism.” It compared the strike on the FARC camp to US air strikes against Al Qaeda in Pakistan.

And the New York Times, the voice of America’s erstwhile liberal establishment, found it “hard to believe that in the 21st century the democratically elected governments of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela would be talking about war.” While acknowledging that Colombia’s raid constituted “an infringement of Ecuador’s territory—a sensitive issue anywhere,” it urged the presumably hot-headed Latin leaders of Ecuador and Colombia to “cool their rhetoric and begin a serious discussion of how they can jointly secure their borders against the FARC.”

One would never guess that Washington had any role in the bloody events on the Colombian-Ecuadoran border. The Bush administration portrays itself—and is largely portrayed by a compliant media—as a selfless champion of democratic values and faithful ally of the people’s of the southern hemisphere.

The facts, however, tell another, far uglier story. The three Andean nations have been brought to the brink of war by a brutal and cold-blooded political assassination carried out to further the interests of US imperialism at the expense of the Colombian people and the population of the entire region.

The March 1 raid was carried out not to defend Colombia from terrorism, but to murder one man, Raul Reyes, considered the second-in-command of the FARC and the guerrilla movement’s principal international spokesman and diplomatic representative. He was well known in both Latin America and Europe, having served as the principal FARC negotiator in the abortive attempt under the government of President Andres Pastrana (1998-2002) to broker a peaceful settlement of the civil conflict that has wracked Colombia for more than four decades. During that same period, he met with officials of the Clinton State Department.

To carry out this political murder, air strikes were called in against the camp inside Ecuador as Reyes and some 20 of his comrades slept. Commandos were then sent into the camp to finish off most of the survivors and haul Reyes’s bloody corpse back to Colombia as a political trophy for the right-wing US-backed government of President Alvaro Uribe.

This ruthless attack was staged not to ward off some pending terrorist attack. On the contrary, it was designed as a “preemptive strike” against a negotiated release of hostages held by the FARC, among them a former presidential candidate, Ingrid Betancourt, who holds joint Colombian-French citizenship and has been held prisoner by the FARC for six years.

Just two days before the border massacre, French President Nicolas Sarkozy publicly called for the release of the ailing Betancourt and announced that he was prepared to fly to the Colombian border to personally receiver her.

The FARC itself issued a statement that Reyes had been working through Venezuelan President Chavez to concretize plans for a meeting with Sarkozy to arrange for the hand-over of Betancourt.

The French government has not denied this account. Indeed, on Monday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told the media, “It’s bad news that the man we were talking to, with whom we had contacts has been killed. Do you see how ugly the world is?”

Meanwhile, a French deputy foreign minister confirmed the role played by Chavez in mediating the Sarkozy-FARC hostage negotiations. “President Chavez has taken the initiative, he had taken the initiative earlier on that had allowed for the release of several hostages even though the situation had been blocked for some time, so we are aware of his involvement and the important role he has played,” the minister, Rama Yade, told a news conference in Geneva.

After the news of Reyes’s assassination, the French foreign ministry issued a pointed statement to the effect that the Colombian government was well informed that France was conducting negotiations with him.

This statement was fleshed out this week by the Argentine press. Citing sources in the Argentine foreign ministry, it reported that Sarkozy had sent a delegation of three personal envoys to Colombia and that they were in the border region to meet with Reyes.

“On Saturday [the day of the cross-border raid], the three negotiators were 200 kilometers from the attack zone and were headed for a meeting with Reyes when they received a call,” the daily Pagina 12 reported. It was Luis Carlos Restrepo, head of the Colombian government’s Peace Commission, who warned them not to go to the meeting place.


US role in Reyes’s assassination

Colombian officials have openly acknowledged the role of US intelligence agencies in instigating and coordinating the March 1 targeted assassination. General Oscar Naranjo, commander of the national police told reporters it was no secret that the Colombian military-police apparatus maintained “a very strong alliance with federal agencies of the US.”

The Colombian radio network, Radio Cadena Nacional (RCN), reported Wednesday that Reyes’s location was pinpointed by US intelligence as a result of monitoring a satellite phone call between the FARC leader and Venezuelan President Chavez. The February 27 call—three days before the raid—came after the FARC released to Venezuelan authorities four former Colombian legislators—Gloria Polanco, Luis Eladio Perez, Orlando Beltran and Jorge Eduardo Gechem—who had been held hostage for nearly seven years.

“Chavez was thrilled by the release of the hostages, and called Reyes to tell him that everything went well,” RCN reported. Presumably, the CIA or other US intelligence agencies were also tapping phone calls between Reyes and French officials over the proposed release of Betancourt.

Another Colombian station, Noticias Uno, cited intelligence sources as saying that they had received photographs from “foreign spy planes” pinpointing the location of Reyes’s camp in Ecuador.

The Colombian police commander insisted that, while relying on US intelligence, the March 1 attack was an “autonomous operation.”

This claim is improbable to say the least. US military “trainers” are attached to the elite counterinsurgency units that would have been employed in the ground attack that finished off the survivors of the aerial bombardment.

As for the air raid itself, Ecuador’s Defense Minister Wellington Sandoval reported the attack included the use of five “smart bombs” of the type utilized by the US military. “It is a bomb that hits within a meter of where it is programmed, from high velocity airplanes,” he said. He added that to target Reyes with such weapons, “they needed equipment that Latin American armed forces do not have.”

Both Washington and the right-wing regime in Colombia were determined to stop any further hostage releases in order to further efforts to politically isolate the Chavez regime and to enforce the Bush administration’s proscription against negotiations with “terrorists.”

At the same time, the bombs dropped on the FARC encampment were undoubtedly also meant as a message to Sarkozy not to meddle in Yankee imperialism’s “backyard.” It should be recalled that the French president, shortly after his election, sent his then-wife to Libya to consummate the release of six medical workers who had been held for eight years on false charges. This political coup managed to bypass the European Union, which had been negotiating the release, and paved the way for lucrative Libyan contracts for French corporations. Washington had no intention of seeing Paris pursue a similar path in relation to Venezuela, which constitutes the fourth largest source of US oil imports.

In the final analysis, this episode in the “global war on terrorism,” which has brought three South American nations to the brink of armed conflict, is the product of a filthy political murder carried out to defend the strategic and profit interests of US capitalism.

It is a reminder that “Murder, Inc.”—as the CIA became known during the 1960s and 1970s, when it organized numerous assassinations and assassination attempts, along with right-wing coups and dirty wars—is still very much in business in Latin America.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/mar2008/colo-m07.shtml

[The Wiseman]

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3299

New Venezuelan Oil Tax to Fund Public Health Care Programs

Mérida, March 25, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com)— Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez announced a new tax on extraordinary oil profits Monday, the revenue of which will help fund the expansion of health care programs known as the Barrio Adentro “missions,” which bring health care to marginalized communities with the help of Cuban doctors.

“I have decided to apply a new tax on unexpected profits for Barrio Adentro III,” Chávez declared during a visit to the University Hospital in Maracaibo, on the shores of oil-rich Lake Maracaibo.

The president pointed out that soaring oil prices, which have topped $110 per barrel this year, allow oil companies to extract unbudgeted profits which reflect “no extraordinary effort,” investment, or improvement in production efficiency by the companies. He said he had considered taxing these profits for several years, and studied the ideas of Joseph Stiglitz, the former Chief Economist of the World Bank, on the subject.

During his visit to Maracaibo, Chávez inaugurated 11 new surgery rooms and an intensive care facility fully equipped with 431 pieces of cutting edge medical technology in the public hospital. Similar remodeling is planned for 130 other public hospitals across the country during the coming surge financed by the new oil tax, the amount of which is yet to be specified.

These improvements in advanced level health care pertain to the more recent third stage of Barrio Adentro, while stages I and II of Barrio Adentro, already well-developed over the past 5 years, focus on primary care.

Chávez said the measures fall within the framework of an effort called “Revision, Rectification, and Re-advance,” or Three Rs, a period of reflection following the electoral defeat of constitutional reform proposals last December, which was the Chávez administration’s first ever loss at the polls.

The president said Monday that the difference between capitalist and socialist health care is that capitalism “grows like a cancer,” and reserves health care for those who have money to pay for it, while in a socialist system, health care is a human right guaranteed to all.

The president emphasized that the expansion of free health care provided by the Barrio Adentro programs thus far is “unprecedented in the history of humanity.” He noted that the programs have saved nearly 350,000 lives of people who never would have seen a doctor otherwise, and increased the number of doctors in Venezuela from 20 to 60 per 100 people.

The new tax will build upon the 31% increase in contributions to social programs by Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA in 2007, a total of 7.4 billion bolivars ($3.5 billion), and other contributions PDVSA made through the National Development Fund (FONDEN), according to the Venezuelan newspaper El Universal.

90% of PDVSA’s contributions last year went to Barrio Adentro programs and the subsidized food market known as the Mercal mission, representing respective increases of 60% and 92% in the oil company’s contributions to those programs. 

Combined with increases in federal budget allocations, PDVSA’s social spending helped the budgets of the social missions grow to a total of over 26 billion bolivars ($12.1 billion) in 2007, 20% more than in 2006.

Beyond bulking up the health care and food missions, Chávez also announced an expansion of the Culture Mission so that it can provide musical “circuses” in poor communities, and new projects of the Tree Mission, which promotes reforestation in key areas of the country, through the Environment Ministry, according to the state news agency ABN.   

PVDSA can expect good times to come in the wake of its recent victory over Exxon Mobil Corporation in a dispute over compensation for a nationalized Orinoco Oil  Belt project. 

In a celebration ceremony in Caracas Monday, Chávez called the ruling by a London court last Tuesday in favor of Venezuela a “milestone” in the long struggle against imperialism. Exxon must now retract false accusations which harmed PDVSA’s international reputation and undo a $12 billion asset freeze it had pursued against the Venezuelan company, which represents “first a moral victory, then a legal victory,” Chávez exalted.

“The people, awakening, have brought about a government that obeys the popular will,” the president proudly proclaimed at the celebration Monday. The “Fatherland Sellouts” who negotiated trade deals which favored foreign oil companies in the past “will never govern again,” he added.

However, Venezuela must stay alert and not fall back asleep, “because we know who we are facing: Imperialism which does not recognize laws nor arbitration decisions, and much less when they do not favor them,” Chávez advised.

[Xing]

PVDSA can expect good times to come in the wake of its recent victory over Exxon Mobil Corporation in a dispute over compensation for a nationalized Orinoco Oil  Belt project. 

In a celebration ceremony in Caracas Monday, Chávez called the ruling by a London court last Tuesday in favor of Venezuela a “milestone” in the long struggle against imperialism. Exxon must now retract false accusations which harmed PDVSA’s international reputation and undo a $12 billion asset freeze it had pursued against the Venezuelan company, which represents “first a moral victory, then a legal victory,” Chávez exalted.

owned.

[marcos]

Venezuelan Unemployment Continues to Drop in February
April 10th 2008, by Kiraz Janicke - Venezuelanalysis.com

Caracas April 9, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuela's unemployment rate fell to 7.6% in February, Planning and Development Minister Haiman El Troudi announced Tuesday.

This shows a reduction of 3.3 percentage points from 10.9% in February 2007 according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE) and a reduction of 2.6 percentage points from 10.2% in January this year.

El Troudi said the reduced unemployment rate was structural and predicted a sustained decrease. The aim is to reach 5.5% unemployment by the end of 2008, and ultimately to reach "full employment, and quality employment, not just any employment," he added.

Minister El Troudi said the INE report for February shows that 43.7% of Venezuelan workers remain in the informal sector, while 56.3% are employed in the formal sector, an increase of 0.3% compared to last year.

In 1999 Venezuela's unemployment rate was 16.6%, three years later during an industry lockout, aimed at overthrowing the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, unemployment soared to 20.7%, but has decreased progressively since then.

A statement by Venezuela's Communication and Information Ministry stressed that the continued decrease in unemployment and improved economic indicators in the first quarter of 2008 was a reflection of the correct and effective economic measures adopted by the Bolivarian government.

Source URL: http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/
Printed: April 10th 2008
License: Published under a Creative Commons license (by-nc-nd). See creativecommons.org for more information.

[marcos]

Venezuelan Inflation Drops Slightly in March, to 1.7%
April 8th 2008, by Gregory Wilpert - Venezuelanalysis.com

April 8, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com)-- Venezuela's Central Bank announced that the country's inflation rate had dropped from 2.1% in February to 1.7% in March, reflecting a modest success of the government's effort to rein in inflation. The Central Bank measured the inflation rate with a new and more comprehensive indicator.

The cumulative inflation rate for the first quarter of 2008 is 7.1%.

Following a highly inflationary period in January, when the inflation rate reached 3.1%, one of the highest monthly inflation rates of the Chavez presidency, the government initiated a number of new measures to bring inflation down.

Also, the government gave up its goal of keeping inflation at no more than 11% for 2008. Venzuela's minister of Planning and Development, Haiman El Troudi, said today that he expects inflation to be around 19.5% by the end of 2008. El Troudi admitted the current inflation "is not what we had hoped for."

Some of the measures to bring down inflation, which appeared to have some effect this month, included raising interest rates and lowering the black market exchange rate of the Venezuelan currency, the Bolivar, by making access to the official exchange rate easier. Also, public spending has not increased this year as much as it did the previous year.

According to El Troudi, "We are winning the battle against speculation in currency exchange, in prices, and in finances."

The new method for measuring inflation is far more comprehensive and thus more accurate than the previously used method, explained Venezuela's president of the National Statistics Institute, Elias Ejuri, yesterday. "We are now working in eight additional metropolitan areas and in a total of 72 medium and small towns... Now we will have an index that truly reflects the variation of prices in the entire country," said Eljuri.

The new index now covers 300,000 prices in 22,000 establishments, while the previous one covered only 70,000 prices only in Venezuela's two largest cities, Caracas and Maracaibo, according to the state news agency ABN.

El Troudi, argued during the presentation of the interest rate yesterday that given the dramatic price increases that have recently taken place throughout the world, "The economic policies of the Venezuelan government give notice of safeguards that allow us to be quite calm in the face of the economic imbalance that exists worldwide."

As the New York Times reported last week, the price of rice, one of the world's basic food staples, has more than doubled in the past three months.

In Venezuela the largest prices increases in March were for alcoholic beverages (4.5%) and for health care (3.1%).


Source URL: http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/
Printed: April 10th 2008
License: Published under a Creative Commons license (by-nc-nd). See creativecommons.org for more information.

[yuyaymimi]

CARACAS, Venezuela  —  President Hugo Chavez defended his decision not to renew the license of a popular opposition-aligned television network on Tuesday and warned he might crack down on another critical TV station, accusing it of trying to incite attempts on his life.

Chavez said his refusal to renew the license of Radio Caracas Television, which went off the air at midnight Sunday, is "a sovereign, legitimate decision in which there is no argument."

He said the remaining opposition-sided channel Globovision had encouraged attempts on his life and warned that if it wants "to continue calling for disobedience, inciting assassination ... I'm going to warn them before the nation... I recommend they take a tranquilizer, that they slow down, because if not, I'm going to slow them down."

Chavez did not elaborate, but also warned that radio stations should not be inciting violence by "manipulating feelings" among the populace.

Thousands of Venezuelans — both Chavez supporters and opponents — staged separate marches in Caracas on Tuesday. The Chavez opponents chanted "freedom!" while government supporters said they were in the streets to reject an opposition attempt to stir up violence.

Information Minister Willian Lara on Monday accused Globovision of encouraging an attempt on Chavez's life by broadcasting the chorus of a salsa tune — "Have faith, this doesn't end here" — along with footage of the 1981 assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square.

"They incite the assassination of Venezuela's president," he said.

Globovision director Alberto Federico Ravell denied any wrongdoing, calling the allegations "ridiculous."

The government turned over RCTV's license to a new state-funded public channel, which showed a documentary on explorers in Antarctica, a children's program and exercise programs, interspersed with government ads repeating the slogan "Venezuela now belongs to everyone."

On Monday in Caracas, Venezuelan police fired tear gas and plastic bullets into a crowd of up to 5,000 protesters. The protesters later regrouped in the Plaza Brion chanting "freedom!" Some tossed rocks and bottles at police, prompting authorities to scatter demonstrators by firing more gas.

It was the largest of several protests that broke out across Caracas. At least three people and one policemen were reported injured in the skirmishes.

Interior Minister Pedro Carreno told state-run television that four students were wounded by gunfire during a pro-RCTV protest staged near a university in the city of Valencia, located 93 miles west of Caracas. It was not immediately clear who the assailants were or if they were arrested.

Government supporters reveled in the streets as they watched the midnight changeover on large TV screens, seeing RCTV's signal go black and then be replaced by a TVES logo. Others launched fireworks and danced in the streets.

Chavez says he is democratizing the airwaves by turning the network's signal over to public use.

The president accused the network of helping to incite a failed coup in 2002, violating broadcast laws and "poisoning" Venezuelans with programming that promoted capitalism. RCTV's managers deny wrongdoing.

Founded in 1953, RCTV was the nation's oldest private channel and regularly topped viewer ratings with its talk shows, sports, soap operas and comedy programs.

[Sativa Indica]

again with the TV channel.

1st. In the coup of 2001 this channel commited  the act of TREASON against the state by not only defending the army in the army in their overthrow of the government, but also inciting the mass public of Caracas to join in the revolt against Hugo Chavez. In ANY other country in the world this TV station would have been shut down LOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG ago, with its president, chairmembers and stakeholders all put in jail. shit in uk death penalty is still applicable for high treason.

2nd. Not only is a media outlet of this kind rare to find in the world, except maybe in Cuba where papers are DEDICATED to slanderous news and opinions towards Castro, but its really not hard to see why they hold such a position. The united states actually has a budget dedicated towards 'democracy promotion' in Venezuela. I mean serious what would happend if Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ( Iran) announced that they fund groups in the US dedicated towards democracy promotion....

3rd and finally, i would not be very supprised, at all, in the slightest, if half of the so called 'thousands' ( which i think is prob an exageration), where in fact PAID to march against chavez. In Iran to make is 'look' like the shah was a goo leader, the CIA where linked to paying off several hundred members of the public to stage satisfaction with the other throw of their leader. This was then documented stratigically to make it seem like the majority where now pleased with the coup and glad to have the shah as their leader.

In short, if any one thinks this is some how a blemish on Hugo chavez record of human rights promotion, two words..



UTTER SHITE!